Big Changes this Spring

Our son is two years old now and with that came the opportunity to check if his milk and egg allergies had faded with no exposure. A mistake by the lab prevented us from finding out the status of the egg allergy. The milk allergy, however, seems to be completely gone! That alone is good news but there’s even better news. We can finally try another formula. Formula options are extremely limited when your child is Failure to Thrive and allergic to milk.

Formulas can be mixed to different concentrations and it wasn’t appropriate to mix our current formula beyond 30 calories per ounce. The formula we’re transitioning to now is 45 calories per ounce. This gives us a lot of flexibility. Primarily, it’s allowing us to go from five feedings a day down to four. The last feeding of the evening was always while our son was asleep and it significantly worsened his reflux. We’re excited to see it go.

His formula isn’t the only place we’re seeing improvements. His gross motor skills have drastically improved allowing him to comfortably stand on mulch and grass. We hope to see him comfortably walking on both within the next month. Once he can do that he’ll be fairly indistinguishable from the other children. He’ll likely always look small for his age but if he can keep up physically it shouldn’t hold him back in a meaningful way.

We’re making slow but meaningful progress on his eating. He will bite things and do some amount of chewing. He’ll allow food into his mouth and even back into his jaw. Unfortunately, he still doesn’t seem interested in swallowing any of the food. It’s more of a game to him than a way to feed himself. We’ll continue skill-building for now because he’ll need them once we’re able to get him to gain adequate weight. The goal is for his feeding tube to go away eventually. We just need to wait until he’s ready to make that transition.

Thank you for all of your positive thoughts and prayers so far. They’re much appreciated and badly needed.

P.S. If you know anyone who’s struggling with their child’s medical journey please point them in the direction of my book, Becoming a Medical Mom. It has a 5-star rating (2 reviews) on Amazon and a 4.75-star rating (4 ratings & 1 text review) on Goodreads. It’s an excellent, resource and I’m not just saying that because I wrote it. The reviewers agree.

Becoming a Medical Mom

Testimonials
"Being the mother of a child who spent the majority of their first few months in a hospital, I found Ashley Bergris' book, Becoming a Medical Mom, to be a beneficial guide to any mother. I wish I had this book back then with my son." -OnlineBookClub.org

"I loved this book and found the information VERY useful! I wish I'd had it when my son was born. I'll be recommending it to every mom who's just starting out in the medical mom life." - H. Wingert via Amazon.com